Ball games are very popular and tennis in particular has become one of the major popular and professional sports. For the non-professional tennis players there are several ways of improving their game. Training with a tennis coach, self-training by using a ball machine or a return-wall and books and videos improve mainly the technical skills. Tactical coaching on the other hand is hardly available for the non-professional player despite the fact that many matches are decided rather by tactical competence than by the technical skills. The professional player enjoys all the advantages of a personal coach who follows the match, takes notes and videos of the different situations and scenes during a match and discusses his findings with the player. The importance of match data has been known for a long time and recording match data by hand on a match sheet is still in use but needs as well a coach or another skilled person, who may be not available to the non-professional player. Even if there is such a person, he/she may have no direct access to the court or only an obstructed view on the court, so that the taking of the match data is difficult. During the last 10 years more and more electronic devices have come to the market allowing to improve on the manual collection of the match data. Hand-held devices such as pocket computers or laptops with commercially available software give the possibility to enter the data and to show match statistics as shown during TV coverage of tennis games, such as break points won and unforced forehand errors. Those statistics are useful for a professional but need further professional comments (of a coach) to be helpful for the public. Such electronic devices are thus of only limited usefulness for the non-professional player wanting to improve his game.
Information about the score of the game is another area where professional sports and non-professional sports and in particular tennis matches differ enormously. In professional sports the spectators are informed by large electronic scoreboards and the score is updated by the staff of the tournament. In non-professional tennis, even during tournaments, the players have to take and display the score by themselves, by mechanical or digital devices, usually during the change of sides after two games. Usually only the games won are displayed. There is no display for the points and it is not feasible that a player has to turn to a scoreboard after each point. Accordingly, a spectator that does not continuously follow the match or has only an obstructed view on the court is not informed about the actual score. Thus non-professional tennis is not very attractive to follow for supporters of the players. The situation is even worse if the matches of a tournament are held at different locations. In this case even the tournament direction receives the match results after the match. There is no possibility for the supporters to follow the scores outside the court, be it in a lounge or on the Internet.
As mentioned above, electronic devices are known for taking scores of ball games, such as golf, and in particular tennis. For tennis, US 2004/0243261 A1 teaches a system and a method for capturing and analyzing data from a tennis match by using a video camera or by manually entering match data in a handheld device. For golf US 2002/0072815 A1 describes a golf information system with a handheld device that may replace a caddie by storing information on the golf course. The handheld includes a microphone and a voice recognition interface so that voice commands may initiate software functions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,681,108 teaches as well a handheld portable data system for golf that allows data to be input, output and stored using voice recognition commands. U.S. Pat. No. 5,779,566 shows a manually operated handheld golf data recording, reporting and advising unit. US 2004/0158337 A1 teaches a computer system for advising and instructing a player of a sport. US 2002/0132211 A1 shows a coaching system for sports with several players in which a central coach gives audio information to the players. JP2004274248 aims at improving golf skills by transmitting video information to an instructor and transmitting voice instructions by the instructor to the player. GB 2 401 501 shows a handheld device with GPS for golfers that can give a voice message to the golfer. U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,001 shows a golf video analysis system. US 2002/00004723 A1 shows a golf data management system with a handheld device. WO 03/062950 shows a portable golfer's electronic assistant device which allows audio recording and reproduction. U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,340 teaches a method of training with digital motion analysis. JP2005198818 relates to motion analysis and WO 2005/072831 as well relates to this art. US 2002/0079433 provides a golf feedback system and WO 2004/114203 shows a system and a method for recording activity such as a golf swing.